government jobs aren’t all bad. Good benefits, sick time, vacation time, overtime… My daughter is a second year engineer and yes, she gets a higher salary than a GS7, but she has to bill 2000 hours per year so her vacation/holiday time is really limited. Right now she’d trade salary for vacation time. She also has to use a little bit of that salary for student loan payments. Her 401k match doesn’t vest for 5 years. Private life isn’t always so rosy.
I disagree that MOST engineers start at $80k.
Those GS7 salaries are before COL adjustments, so the salaries could be higher, and not by just a little. I think in SF the adjustment is 38%, and in the northeast about 30%.
Students make these kinds of decisions all the time. ROTC commitment? Service academy? New York STEM scholarship?